Validation of a technological pedagogical content knowledge instrument in a Malaysian secondary school context

Purpose – This study focused on the validation of a Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) instrument for using ICT in teaching and learning effectively in a Malaysian secondary school setting. The aim of this study was to confirm a sevenfactor TPACK model which includes Technological Knowledge, Content Knowledge, Pedagogical Knowledge, Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Technological Pedagogical Knowledge, Technological Content Knowledge and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Methodology – This study was designed as a case study situated within a particular context in Malaysia.A survey was administered to 150 pre-service teachers enrolled in a university in Malaysia.Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the adapted TPACK survey was preceded by assessing the fit of the measurement model with the data in the study based on the a priori theoretical model.Findings – The findings revealed that the measurement model adequately fit with the data collected within a Malaysian secondary school context, also lending validity to the adapted TPACK instrument used in this study. Significance – The adapted and translated TPACK survey was found to be a valuable self-report instrument for measuring pre-service teachers’ TPACK knowledge.A greater understanding of TPACK may be required for pre-service teachers before adequate gains in using ICT in teaching can be achieved.Thus, it is recommended that this knowledge should be integrated in the Initial Teacher Education curriculum with more attention to improving access to ICT in Initial Teacher Education and the school

A case study of secondary pre-service teachers’ technological pedagogical and content knowledge mastery level

In recent years, researchers reported that effective ICT integration requires teachers to acquire knowledge of technology, content, pedagogy and the intersection of these, known as TPACK (Mishra & Koehler, 2006; Archambault, & Crippen, 2009).This study specifically sought to answer: 1) What are pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their TPACK mastery level before and after field experience; and, 2) Is there a significant difference of TPACK after field experience in schools? The TPACK survey instrument was adapted from Schmidt et al.(2009) and Archambault and Crippen (2009) and administered before and after their field experience to 107 pre-service teachers in a research intensive university programme in New Zealand.In addition, three student teachers were interviewed before and after field experience. These pre-service teachers scored highest in Content Knowledge (CK) and lowest in Technology Knowledge (TK) domains within TPACK at both before and after field experience. Paired-sample t-tests showed significant increases in most TPACK domains, namely, TK, PK, PCK, TCK and TPACK.Interviews and observations of three students clarified complex changes in knowledge of TPACK that linked to their experience in schools.The study continues to support the need for field experience while also adding caution to the interpretation of TPACK survey evidence given the strength of the student teachers’ perceived knowledge before field experience.Further research is underway with a comparative survey in a programme that prepares teachers for secondary schools in Malaysia

Amir’s Life Story: Resilience and Other Soft Skills Development to Thrive, Despite Vulnerable Beginnings

This article explores the life story of Amir, a young adult from a rural village in Malaysia, who built resilience and developed soft skills to thrive in his life despite his vulnerable beginnings. Amir’s strong resilience and other soft skills that assisted him to be outstanding in his academics and career may have resulted from his caring and supportive authoritative mother, countering his strict and harsh authoritarian father, with an ecological system of protective factors and developmental assets strengthened by religiosity and spirituality. However, both his parents’ extremely different confrontive and coercive methods appeared to have worked together towards the development of certain soft skills, such as his entrepreneurial mindset. This fresh outlook may provide guidance to assist vulnerable children and youth from rural areas to thrive, while raising new questions for future research

A case study of blended learning implementation in higher institution: exploring practices and strategies

Purpose - This study was aimed to understand how do lecturers develop their blended learning practice and what strategies that could be employed in facilitating blended learning environment.Based on the current wave of teaching and learning with technology, blended learning is now seen as a requirement for teaching and learning in the 21st Century classroom.In recent years, many educational settings have adopted the blended learning approach (Halverson, et. al., 2014; Graham, Woodfield & Harrison, 2013) including Malaysian higher institutions (Shamuganathan & Karpudewan, 2015).It has become progressively important for lecturers to know how to effectively facilitate blended learning courses.Blended learning can be defined as courses that use portion of face-to-face context and integration of web components which allows the flexibility of the teaching and learning process (Dzuiban, Moskal & Hartman, 2005).Generally, most of academicians are aware of the urgency of blended learning implementation in higher institution in aligning with the shift 9 in Malaysian Education BluePrint (HE) (Ministry of Education, 2015).There are three (3) groups of blended learning category that have been identified from big data analysis, which are: group 30%, group 50% and group more than 70%. Several themes emerged which moulding around three main levels of contextual factors from the findings of in-depth interview with selected nine participants

Early experience of ICT integration in teaching: Exploring the perceptions of the roles of cooperating teacher

The use of ICT has become a priority in education with the huge investment placed on initiatives related to ICT.Many studies has also highlighted the importance of field experience in teacher education program to integrate ICT effectively in the classroom.Support from the cooperating teacher has the most significant influence on the development of pre-service teachers during field experience.However, the level of support given varied from the roles expected.This study focuses on the roles of the cooperating teacher as perceived by the pre-service teachers and the cooperating teachers themselves.A case study with embedded cases of seven pre-service teachers and six cooperating teachers at three secondary schools was employed using interviews for data collection.The findings of this study confirmed the different levels of support given to the pre-service teachers with regard to their use of ICT during field experience.Results indicated that both pre-service teachers and cooperating teachers have identified specific roles that each must engage in to strengthen their relationship.These roles include having the cooperating teacher as a role model, evaluator, mentor and peer to the pre service teachers.This study was limited in that it was designed as a case study, and thus, limits the generalizability of the findings to other contexts.Therefore, further research into the practice of a larger sample of Malaysian pre service teachers and cooperating teachers may reveal variations of practice as well as enabling greater confirmation and generalisation of these findings.Although the cooperating teachers in general, do not use the ICT in their teaching, it is recommended that they support and give the opportunity to the pre-service teachers to enhance their ICT knowledge and skill.Teachers also need to be aware and clear about their responsibilities before, during and after the supervision period. To establish this, more training in supervising the pre-service teachers which includes the use of ICT in teaching should be organised

The Life Story of a Resilient Underprivileged Youth: Motivation to Learn Soft Skills

Purpose – The study explored how an underprivileged blind individual from an extremely poor family developed resilience and soft skills to thrive in life, despite challenges that could have easily hindered the development of his abilities.Methodology – This qualitative study employed the narrative inquiry method, involving responsive interviews. Experiences over a period of time were retrospectively documented via the collection of a life story from one participant who was very distinctive to the phenomenon being studied. Data analysis was carried out manually using open, thematic and longitudinal coding methods, after which interpretation was done to provide meaning to the results.Findings – Positive youth development in the participant’s life may be the result of the ecological system he grew up in, supported by three synergistic protective factors: religiosity and spirituality, parental discipline, and care and support, in addition to the traumatic life turning points he experienced.Significance – The findings provide directions for further research on the underprivileged in the Malaysian context. They would also be able to guide the government and other interested stakeholders on potential methods and initiatives to build resilience and motivation to learn soft skills so that underprivileged children will be able to thrive in life

The life story of a resilient underprivileged youth: The motivation to learn soft skills to thrive

Purpose - The study aims to explore and analyse how Firdaus, an underprivileged blind individual from an extremely poor family, developed soft skills and resilience to thrive in life, despite the life challenges faced which could have easily hindered the development of his abilities and skills.This is important to be analysed because the Ministry of Higher Education 2015 Graduate Tracer Research Report had stated that most of the unemployed graduates are underprivileged, and the related literature mostly highlighted that the unemployment in Malaysia is mainly due to lack of soft skills (Abdul Hamid, Islam, & Hazilah Abd Manaf, 2014; Abdul Karim et al., 2012; Pillai, Stefanie; Khan, Mahmud H.; Ibrahim, Ida Syahirah; Raphael, 2011 and Zaharim, Ahmad, Yusoff, Omar, & Basri, 2012). Empirical evidence shows that soft skills are the least developed in the underprivileged from a very young age due to their upbringing and exposure (Duncan,Magnuson & Votruba-drzal, 2014; Garcia, 2015). Therefore, Firdaus was chosen as he is distinct to the phenomenon being studied, coming from an extremely underprivileged background but being able to secure a degree in a prestigious public university under a scholarship while winning various awards, and managed to secure a job immediately upon study completion.The findings may be used as a starting point for more research to be done on the underprivileged in the Malaysian context, to guide initiatives to build resilience and motivation to learn more soft skills to thrive in life.The results could also facilitate in exploring a fresh new outlook to address the lack of soft skills that lead to issues in graduate employability as well as behavioural and risk factors, especially among the underprivileged in Malaysia.Methodology - As this qualitative study seeks to explore experiences through the life story of an underprivileged individual during his childhood and youth, the narrative inquiry method (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) was used to understand the circumstances, protective factors and turning points in his life.A “retrospective” longitudinal study was carried out where experiences over a period of time was retrospectively documented and analysed via the collection of Firdaus’ life story through responsive interviews (Rubin & Rubin, 2012). In-depth unstructured interviews were carried out to understand experiences to seek rich information, using open-ended questions which changed throughout the interviews. Data was collected from one participant who is very distinctive to the phenomenon being studied (Creswell, 2013) via two interviews which were recorded and transcribed.To facilitate triangulation (Marshall & Rossman, 2016), his mother and teacher were also interviewed as other data sources.Member checking (Creswell, 2013) was another method to ensure trustworthiness, as Firdaus reviewed and commented on the draft findings before they were finalised. Manual coding was carried out while field notes and analytical memos were progressively written, and while interviews were being transcribed, as recommended by Saldana (2013).Open coding was used at the commencement of coding to detect main ideas and patterns in the data (Marshall & Rossman, 2016). Themeing the data (Saldana, 2013) was then carried out, when the codes and themes emerge from data analysis (Robson & McCartan, 2016) by thematic coding. This was followed by longitudinal coding where the data was reviewed thematically and comparatively through time to review changes that may have occurred (Saldana, 2013).The interpretation of the codes and themes was then carried out to provide meaning, coherence and linkage of the results to answer the research question (Marshall & Rossman, 2016). Findings - Positive youth development in relation to the growth of resilience in Firdaus’ life resulting in him developing motivation to learn more soft skills to thrive in life may be the result from the ecological system he grew up in which was supported by the three synergistic protective factors below; as well as the traumatic life turning points he experienced.Religiosity and Spirituality Faith works as a stronger protective factor that successfully help children adapt and cope with life adversities in some cultures than in others (Zolkoski & Bullock, 2012).In Firdaus’ case, religiosity and spirituality teachings from very young appears to have developed his resilience.In the integrated secondary school he went to after he lost his sight, he felt so sad about how the other blind students were treating him. However, he did not confide in his mother or his teacher like when he did when he was in primary school. Instead, he cried and confided in God and faith pulled him through his difficulties.Parental Discipline It may be surprising that a high discipline environment which Firdaus experienced in his childhood, with power assertion and physical punishments being mete out, is considered a protective factor in his life. Grusec, Danyliuk, Kil, and Neill (2017) had explained that parents with a low socioeconomic status tend to exert more controlling discipline methods to ensure the child’s safety as they come from risky environments, and strict obedience is crucial. However, there appears to be no trauma detected in Firdaus’ stories about the physical punishments meted out on him. Instead, he expresses that he is what he is today because of his mother’s discipline methods which mainly used power assertiveness.Care and Support Firdaus exhibits unconditional love for parents, especially his mother, due to the sacrifices she made for her children. With his upbringing of strong religious teachings, he believes that he will receive from God what he gives to his parents, be it happiness or sadness. He mentioned that his university degree and his achievements at his job are all because of their prayers for his success.Life Turning Points The turning points in his life which were (1) the extreme adversity of becoming blind when he was a teenager; and (2) when his reserved father had an outburst; may have been the catalysts of his current achievements

Developing New Indicators To Describe Digital Technology Infrastructure In Primary And Secondary Education

Provides sets of metrics for describing digital technology provision in primary and secondary education (schools and beyond) based on analysis of the literature and testing against a range of vignettes representing a wide range of settings in 'developing world' contexts

What predicts attitudes toward computer?

The study was conducted to examine the status of computer use and attitudes among secondary school students.It also identifies the relationships among the variables and the predictors of computer attitudes.External variables (such as computer experience and frequency of use), perceived usefulness and confidence are included as potential antecedents of attitudes toward computer. Data was collected among 293 secondary school students in Kedah, Malaysia. It was found that there exist moderate to strong relationships between all the variables studied, with r-value ranging from .17 to .69. Regression analyses have identified confidence in using computers as the strongest predictors of computer attitudes, with R2 = .48. Other variables, computer experience, perceived usefulness and frequency of use also entered the equation, but turned out to be poor predictor of attitude toward computers.Discussion of findings and suggestions for future research are included in the text

Conceptualizing and developing effective practices of service learning in UUM

Service learning is a method of teaching and learning that bridges classroom experiences with community activities. It centres on the improvement of assets of the selected community and co-creating knowledge through planned tasks (Hamerlinck & Plaut, 2014). The main aim is to produce meaningful learning experiences through experiential learning. Service learning is one of the pedagogical strategies that could enhance teaching and learning skills in the 21st century via its meaningful and innovative learning outcomes. It has been identified as one of the ten high impact practices for engaging learners (AAC&U & NLC, 2007). In line with the recent development on high impact practices that are seen globally, Malaysia has been enhancing its teaching quality via the Ministry of Education (MoE) by introducing high impact practices that include service learning or better known as SULAM